Automatic apparatus for binding broken yarns on spinning machines



March 19, 1968 GILLQNO ET AL 3,373,551

AUTOMATIC APPARATUS FOR BINDING BROKEN YARNS ON SPINNING MACHINES Filed NOV. 26, 1965 17 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTORJ. NAT/0 G/LLO/VO BY /97 T 2/91 1345 March 19, 1968 M. GILLONO ET AL 3,373,551

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' INVENTORJ. M87750 6/44 O VO BY P/ET/PO 01.85/97 0 United States Patent 6 3 373,551 AUTOMATIC APFARAZTUS FOR BINDING BROKEN YARNS ON SPINNING MACHENES Matteo Giliono, 7 Via San Lorenzo, Ivrea, Turin,

and Pietro Alberto, 16 Via Lamarrnora, Italy Italy, Biella, Verceiii,

Filed Nov. 26, 1965, Ser. No. 509,873 Claims priority, application Italy, May 8, 1965, 10,457/ 65 23 Claims. (CI. 57-34) ABSTRACT 9F THE DISCLGSURE This invention relates to an automatic apparatus for binding broken yarns on spinning machines.

Heretofore, whenever a yarn was broken during operation of a spinning machine it was necessary for an operator to detect the broken yarn, shut off the appropriate parts of the machine, and manually bind the broken ends of the yarn. This, of course, is not only time consuming and expensive but also does not provide an instantaneous manner of detecting a broken yarn.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an apparatus for binding broken yarns on spinning machines which is automatic.

It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus which automatically detects a broken yarn in a spinning machine.

It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus which automatically halts continued yarn spinning upon breaking of a yarn in a spinning machine.

It is another object of this invention to reduce the shut down time of a spinning machine caused by broken yarns.

It is another object of this invention to reduce the cost of binding the broken ends of a yarn in spinning machines.

It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus for binding broken yarns in a smooth operation.

Generally, the apparatus of this invention includes a carriage which is reciprocally .mounted along a path parallel to a row of spindles of a spinning machine. The carriage provides a mount for various units for mechanically performing the various movements and operations required for detecting and binding any broken yarns. In addition, the apparatus includes a programming memory for actuating the units in syncronism according to a predetermined set of controls of an operation cycle.

The units mounted on the reciprocal carriage includes a vertically reciprocal support; a sensing unit for detect ing a broken yarn; a unit for halting the operation of the apparatus at the spindle where a broken yarn is detected; a spool extraction unit for removing the spool of broken yarn from the spindle; a spool height sensing unit for positioning the apparatus with respect to the spool; a searching unit for taking up a broken yarn end; a traveller searching unit for positioning a traveller at a predetermined position on a guide track of the machine; a threading unit for threading yarn into the traveller; and a unit for binding yarn and cutting excess portions.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description and appended claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a general front view of the apparatus according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a general top view of the apparatus;

FIG. 3 is an elevational view of the unit for halting the apparatus at the spindle Where broken yarn is detected;

FIG. 3A is a top view of the halting unit of FIG. 3, when approaching a spindle;

FIG. 3B is a top view similar to FIG. 3A, however showing the halting unit in halt position against a spindle;

FIG. 4 is a schematic lateral view of the sensing unit for detecting a broken yarn;

FIG. 4A is a partial front view of a detail of FIG. 4;

FIG. 5 is an elevational sectional view of the unit for extracting a spool from a spindle and for causing opposite rotation of said spool, with extraction pincers in release position;

FIG. 5A is a view similar to FIG. 5, but showing the pincers in expanded gripping position;

FIG. 6 is a top view of the spool height sensing unit;

FIG. 6A is a side view of the spool height sensing unit of FIG. 6 in a first down stroke stage;

FIG. 6B is a side view like that of FIG. 6A but in a second down stroke stage;

FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic side view of the searching unit for broken yarn ends in a position remote from a spool;

FIG. 7A is a side view similar to FIG. 7, with the unit in search position on a spool;

FIG. 7B is a top view showing operation of unit of FIGS. 7 and 7A;

FIG. 8 is a top view of the traveller searching unit on the guide track of the spinning machine, in a remote position from the track;

FIG. 8A is a top view similar to FIG. 8, but with the unit in traveller search position;

FIG. 8B is a sectional side view of unit of FIGS. 8 and 8A; 5

FIG. 9 is a diagrammatic side view of the threading unit for threading yarn into the traveller, in a position remote from a ring guide track;

FIG. 9A is a view similar to FIG. 9 but with the unit in operative position on the guide track;

FIG. 9B is a front view, taken at an angle of degrees in respect to FIGS. 9 and 9A, showing an operative detail of the unit;

FIG. 10 is a side view showing a first embodiment of a unit for binding and cutting yarn in an inoperative position;

FIG. 10A is a view similar to FIG. 10, but with the unit for binding and cutting yarn in operative position;

FIG. 11 is a top view of the head of the binding and cutting device of FIG. 10, with cutting shears in open position;

FIG. 11A is a top view similar to FIG. 11, but with the cutting shears in closed position;

FIG. 12 is a side view of a second embodiment of a unit for binding and cutting yarn, while advancing toward the binding position;

FIG. 13 is a top view of the unit of FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 is a side view of FIG. 12, illustrating the binding and cutting unit in binding and cutting position;

FIG. 15 is a top view of the unit of FIG. 12, in the same position shown in FIG. 14;

FIG. 16 is a diagrammatic, partially sectioned side elevational view of a third embodiment of a unit for binding and cutting yarn, in operative position;

FIG. 17 is a top view of the unit of FIG. 16, with cutting blades in open position; and

FIG. 18 is a top view like that of FIG. 17, but with cutting blades in the closed position.

Reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings for a full illustration of construction and operation of the apparatus according to the present invention, in which drawings many mechanical parts known per se were diagrammatically shown, and in the figures illustrating the various units, such units were separately shown for making easier reading of the drawings, removing interference of adjacent units.

Referring to the drawings wherein mechanical parts known per se are diagrammatically shown and wherein the various units of an apparatus of the invention are separ-ately illustrated for facilitating the description of the apparatus.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the apparatus according to the invention travels reciprocally back and forth along a spinning machine by means of wheel 1 running on track 2. When forward travel of the apparatus is over, a limit switch (not shown) provides for reversing the rotation of a motor 3. The reciprocal travel of the apparatus is even and continuous and halting of the apparatus in a determined position on a spindle occurs if and when one of the two sensing devices 4 or 4', according to the direction of travel, senses a lack of yarn and therefore it breaks and gives a suitable halting signal.

The yarn binding apparatus of the invention is practically comprised of the following units:

A pneumatic memory 5, which could also be electric or electronic, having the object of giving several predetermined controls, in order to cause the operative cycle to take place in an exactly programmed way.

A vertically reciprocable support 6 bearing other units for searching and binding the broken yarn which is controlled by a piston 8 and slides vertically on column 7.

A spool extraction unit 9 which rotates a spool in a direction contrary to the normal direction of rotation of spinning.

A traveller searching unit 10 (FIG. 2) having the object of finding a traveller on an annular guide track and positioning it in a fixed manner, that is to say in a'fixed position.

A unit 11 having the object of threading a broken yarn into the traveller found by unit 10.

A unit 12 having the object of halting the apparatus when a broken yarn is found.

A compressed air pipe 13 bearing one valve 14 at each spindle where the apparatus takes air when stopping by means of a joint 15.

The apparatus also has a two-way aspir-ator.

Operation of the apparatus is described below by description of the operations of each of its various units.

Sensing of broken yarns is made in advance since the apparatus senses an eventual lack of yarn before the units designed for its binding reach the operative position. In fact, other units of the apparatus are located in a central position with respect to a spindle on which is positioned a spool 17, whilst sensing devices 4 and 4' are advanced, to the left or to the right of said spindle, according to the travel direction of the apparatus.

The object of this advanced sensing operation is to obtain a smooth halt, and to avoid dashes and sudden blows.

Besides being advanced, sensing of the lack of yarns provides another function which occurs in the following manner:

At each of points 18 and 18 (FIG. 1) there is a pneumatic valve which is opened upon contact for a fraction of a second with a leg 19, 19' of a respective spindle, or With pins arranged at a length equal to a spindles center distance. These valves communicate with a little reservoir of compressed air (not shown).

When either of the valves at 18 or 18' is opened after contacting the leg 19, 19' of a spindle, a little amount of air is delivered to sensing device 4 or 4', which has to indicate whether or not there is a broken yarn in that position. The sensing control is thus dual, since the sensing device 4 or 4 is operative only when it is in front of a yarn. In fact between two subsequent yarns there is void space, and if the sensing device would operate in this space, it would always indicate lack of yarn, thus making an error. With dual control valve 18 or 18 giving a signal of proper position, the sensing device 4 or 4 operates only when it has been positioned.

Of course, this dual detection could also be electrical, magnetic or electro-pneumatic, in this case a pneumatic system was preferred because it is more efficient as to wear.

Sensing devices 4 and 4' operate in the following manner (FIGS. 4 and 4A):

Referring to FIG. 4, the little blow of compressed air from valve 18 impacts on a light swinging blade 33 which, being balanced on pin 34, is moved forward by air with a certain force; if this blade finds in front of itself a yarn, it makes a very little stroke up to yarn 35 which stops it; on the contrary if the yarn is broken, blade 33 makes its complete and wider swinging stroke and with its lever arm 36 gives a pulse to microswitch 20.

When blade 33 has given a mechanical pulse to microswitch 20 because of a lack of yarn, the microswitch 20 electrically feeds its control to unit 12 in order to halt the apparatus in the proper position.

This unit 12 operates as follows (see FIG. 3):

Pulse from microswitch 20 causes operation of electromagnet 21, which pushes a saddle 22 forward causing Y- shaped rod 23 to extend into the axis of the spindles support. The apparatus continues to travel but when rod 23 comes into contact with spindle 24, such a contact causes an angular movement of the rod 23, which will stop against grip 25, so as to block advancement of the apparatus.

On the grip 25 there is also placed an electric microswitch (not shown), which when touched by rod arm 23, will cause stoppage of the motor 3 and engagement of filling union 15 on valve 14 (FIG. 1). This engagement provides for inlet of compressed air in the pneumatic circuit of the apparatus of the invention and therefore provides also for recharge of supplemental reservoir which is not shown in the figures and has the purpose of feeding the sensing device or yarn detector 44'. At the same time (see FIG. 3) cam 26 raises a brake or friction clutch 27 and stops the rotary motion of the spindle. The extraction unit 9 (FIG. 1) is instantly actuated in order to raise the spool and impart to the spool a rotary motion in a direction contrary to that of the spool during the normal working cycle. The extraction operation occurs in the following manner as illustrated in FIGS. 5, 5A, I and 2:

Piston 28 pushes the end of assembly 29 outwardly so as to exactly center it over the axis of the spindle where the yarn is broken. Piston 30 lowers the whole assembly and causes expansible pincers 31 to thread on cop of spool 17. Then (see FIG. 5) a pneumatic piston inside assembly 29 causes expansion of the pincers 31 thereby causing the cop 32 of spool 17 to become engaged (FIG. 5A) with the assembly 29 so that cop 32 is fixed at the upper end to the assembly 29 while the steel spindle still remains within the lower end of the cop, however disengaged therefrom. As the piston 30 thereafter rises, it carries the cop 32 with it.

At this moment motor 37 starts to rotate and transmits through a belt its motion to assembly 29 which in turn starts to rotate in a direction opposite to the direction of rotation of spindles; as the spool is fixed to this assembly, it acquires a rotation contrary to its normal working rotation. At this moment, piston 8 (FIG. 1) is actuated and lowers the support 6 which is rather complex since it has to carry out several operations.

The first of said operations is the following: a piston 38 pushes a rod (not shown) against column 7; when the support 6, moving downwards, reaches position 39 the aforementioned rod enters notch 39 causing a stop in the downward movement of the support 6. When the support 6 is stopped, the sensing unit for locating the exact position of the support 6 with respect to the spool is actuated, as viewed in FIGS. 6, 6A and 6B. A fork 40 embodied in the support 6 and controlled by the memory 5 engages the cop 32 between its prongs.

When fork 4% has engaged the cop, the memory 5 will again actuate the piston 38 (FIG. 1) and will retract the rod which had stopped with its insertion into notch 39 upon initial lowering of support 6, so that the whole support 6 will again slide downwards. At a certain point fork 40 will touch the spool of yarn at position 41 and will be stopped from further movement down the cop. It is noted that the lever or fork 40 is adjusted by means of springs 42 and 43 so as to be capable of overcoming the natural smooth friction of cop 32, but not the greater friction of yarn. The support 6 still proceeds slowly downwards, so that lever or fork 46 will start to rotate about its fulcrum 44, until at point 45 it makes contact with microswitch 46. The microswitch 46 controls an electromagnet 47 (FIG. 1) which acting on lever arm 48, through a rotary eccentric pivot, will block support 6 in this position stopping its lowering.

In view of the fact that a cop winds on itself yarn at positions which are gradually varying from top to bottom, the position of support 6 in respect to the spool may be different according to the Working stage (e.g. about full spool, half spool, about empty spool).

At this moment support 6 is positioned for carrying out a yarn search. A searching unit for the search of broken yarn is mounted on support 6 and operates as will be now explained, and as shown in FIGURES 7, 7A and 7B.

The search unit includes a fiat suction tube 49, a pneumatic turbine St), a transmission 51', and a belt 52; this search unit when the apparatus is travelling, as shown in FIG. 7, is spaced apart from the spool 17. A piston controlled by memory 5 pushes the Search unit comprising the suction tube, turbine and belt, toward the spool (FIG. 7A) so that the transmission 51 proceeds beyond the spool. Upon continued travel, cam 53, coming into contact with roller 54, compels the transmission and belt 52 to move toward the spool 17 (FIG. 7B) through the angular movement of lever 54. In this manner, suction tube 49 will stop close to the spool with the belt 52 in contact with the yarn wound on the conical part of the spool. At this moment, spool 17 is already rotating on the direction opposite to its normal rotation on the spindle, so that for the search of broken ya-rn three elements are combined, namely: a rotary motion contrary to that of spindle, a friction of belt on spool in the direction opposite to spool rotation, and air aspiration. Pneumatic turbine 50 causes belt 52 to rotate at a speed which is many times greater than the maximum peripheral velocity of spool 17, so that the end of a broken yarn, which is surely located between points 55 and 56, comes in contact with the soft belt and is drawn back toward position 57. Because the belt velocity is greater than the yarn unwinding speed, the end of the broken yarn slips from the belt and is taken up by suction tube 49 (aspirator). The suction tube 49 when it 6 has taken up the yarn end continues to pick up yarn whilst spool 17 is rotating, so that the tube 49 will store a certain amount of yarn as it is fed into the suction tube.

The suction tube 49 has not only to pick up the end of yarn, but also to store a certain amount of yarn at least equal to the distance between bottom of the spindle and the roving feeding rollers. Spinning frames are in fact a unique kind of device in the field of textile machinery, wherein it is required to bind two different elements, that is, an already twisted yarn with a roving which will become yarn when receiving twists. Since it is not possible to draw roving away from feeding rollers, as it would without a doubt break, it is necessary to have a sufiicient length of yarn for carrying its end up to the roving feeding rollers. It is therefore indispensible that the suction tube store a certain length of yarn. Since in tube 58 the air whirls created by suction have a tendency to cause yarn to lose twists, as those latter are not yet set the tube 58 is given an undulated shape, so that the yarn will have several points of contact with the tube, e.g. points 59-59 59, which are suflicient for hindering unwinding of yarn under suction air whirls; of course, such a shaping of the tube 58 could also be carried out in other ways without departing from spirit of the invention. The principle is that of creating contact points within suction tube 58 in order to retain yarn against countertwistmg.

When the suction tube 49 has picked up a sufiicient length of yarn, the whole support 6 returns to the position shown in FIG. 7 and turbine 50 is stopped.

Piston 30 (see FIG. 1) is lowered and brings back cop 17 in its position anchored to the spindle; pincers 31, operated by the internal piston, are detached from the cop, piston 30 causes the assembly to rise again and piston 28 brings unit 9 back to the inoperative position of FIGS. 1 and 2.

At the same time a search is performed for the traveller 69 (FIG. 2), which may still be in any position on an annular track 61 and which has to be placed in a fixed position in order to allow yarn to be threaded thereinto; such a search takes place as follows (FIGS. 8, 8A and 8B):

Two rollers 63 and 63 hearing a swinging support 64 are placed over the table 62 of the spinning frames (FIGS. 1 and 2), which has, as it is well known, a reciprocated swinging vertical movement in order to store yarn on a spool. The rollers 63 and 63' (FIG. 2) follow the up and down movement of the table 62, and on their support 64 there is mounted a unit providing for the search of the traveller (FIG. 8). A piston 65 is mounted on support 64 which through a rod 66 actuates a movable support 6'7. On this movable support 67 there are suitably shaped little air nozzles 68 having the object of finding the traveller. When it is required to search for the traveller, memory 5 gives an impulse to piston 63; rod 66 pushes the whoie support 67 with nozzles 68 onto table 62, so that the nozzles are placed in such a way that a supply of compressed air is delivered to said nozzles to create an air stream which is circular and tangential to traveller guide track 61; traveller 70, which may be located in any point of this track, is struck by these air blows and caused to rotate. However, when the traveller 70 reaches pin 69, it is stopped against outer surface of track 61, as pin 69 does not allow further rotation of the traveller. This halt position is that fixed for threading yarn onto the traveller; it is, however, necessary to halt the traveller in a safer manner in order to avoid vibrations or impacts which displace the traveller from the fixed position. For such a locking of the traveller there is provided a piston 71, which, as it is best shown in FIGURE 8B, is fixed on support 64 but is not bound to back and forth movement of piston 65. This piston 71 pushes under traveller '70, through rod 72 and lever 73, a spring 74 having the form of a seat. The spring 74, when coming into contact with the traveller, locks it, hindering any further move- 

